suki, about ty lee: have you seen a girl wandering around? looks like a drawing of a best friend that an eight-year-old would make.
the stranger: no, but i saw a boy like that
suki, screaming: katara! someone saw aang!
found this pic and shared it in the zutara week discord a while ago. anyway this is firelord zuko
we've all seen the avatars on these charts but never the gfs. well look no further people
listen i just think chief katara has a really nice ring to it
Season 1, Episode 15, 16:46
Great clouds in the last flashback of the episode
Katara: sometimes I think you are only with me because I am a healer.
Suki(on the ground): look I'm not going to sit here bleeding and pretend there are not perks. But I promise, next date will have less fighting.
Katara: no no it's fine I like fighting.
AO3
Fandom: Avatar the Last Airbender
Summary:
One Scar to rule them all, One Scar to find them, One Scar to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
a.k.a That one soulmate AU where the entire Gaang share's Zuko's scar.
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[If asked later, Sokka wouldn’t be able to say exactly when it happened other than that it was night and it was winter (which didn’t really narrow things down much since winter was basically one long night anyway.) What he can say though is that he, Katara, Dad, and Gran-Gran are all sitting around the fire. Gran-Gran is telling them stories and Dad works on a spear while they’re all waiting for the food to cook. Sokka might be dozing off a little bit when suddenly there’s a flash of pain from his face and his hand instinctively flies to his left eye. Across the flickering flames of the fire, Katara’s doing the same thing. For a few seconds, there’s warmth as well, but it vanishes quickly.
Their cries of shock are simultaneous.
By this point, Gran-Gran’s paused in her story but neither she nor Dad look very concerned. Sokka isn’t that concerned either at what’s probably just a bad black eye until he and Katara remove their hands from their eyes (at the same time, they’ve had lots of practice) and— Wow. That isn’t a black eye. Instead, it’s the nastiest burn he’s ever seen and he’s pretty sure that if there was more light in there, he’d be sick.]
Purely Political update is up ~
Chapter 1 ao3
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Chapter 2: The wedding
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Zuko and Katara have been spending every meal together since she's arrived.
For dinner, they are joined by both their families and delegations and lunch is a rotation of close relatives. But for breakfast, they are left alone to get to know each other one on one.
Zuko anticipates awkwardness. He knows he's not much of a talker. But Katara seems to fill the gaps between his thoughts with little effort.
They start with safe topics: plans for the wedding and fond childhood memories. Zuko learns of her closeness to her father, brother and sister-in-law. Although he could already tell by the casual interactions between them at shared meal times.
Soon they're talking about anything and everything. What it's like being the only waterbender her age. How she's thankful for her teacher Hama, since the other waterbenders in her tribe are mainly healers. How she likes to learn everything but feels more herself when she's allowed to train like a warrior. How scared she was when she found out about the marriage but how relieved she is now that she's gotten to know him. Zuko opens up about his family. He tells her about Azula. He tells her about how he got his scar. How his uncle banished his father afterwards. He's expecting pity or empty words. But she just reaches for his hand and holds it tightly until an advisor eventually interrupts to bring Zuko to his next meeting. There's a warm tingling in his fingers for the rest of the day.
It isn't an entirely new sensation. He'd felt something similar with Mai all those years ago. But it had been a long time and he's just too conscious of how Katara is so stunning and warm and easy to talk to. It feels..itchy.
That morning it's all he can do to keep himself from reaching out to her...to stroke her cheek...to kiss her. He can feel the tension in his joints and he knows he's being short with her but he can't help it.
“Okay, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” His voice wavers as he lies and Katara gives him a pointed look.
“Really?”
“I’m just..thinking.”
“About what?”
Zuko sighs. “About the wedding. About us. About the future.”
Katara’s face relaxes as she lets out a deep breath. “Well of course you are. I can’t stop thinking about it either. I’m so nervous I’m gonna mess up something with the ceremony even though I keep going over it in my head.” She smiles nervously. “But I'm also really excited.”
“You are?”
“Well aren't you?”
He doesn't know what to say. He hasn't allowed himself to be excited. He's been trying so desperately to manage his expectations.
“I'm just really nervous.”
Katara finds his hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze.
“Hey, we're in this together.”
Zuko wonders how her hand could fit so perfectly in his.
...
The wedding ceremony passes him by in a haze. He does his best not to mumble through his cues and to maintain eye contact with Katara as he speaks.
“You may kiss the bride to seal your vows.”
No. No no no, it's too soon. How did we already get to this part?
Katara is looking at him so fondly it feels like she's clutching his heart in her hand.
He leans into her, meeting her lips soft and sweet.
His chest tightens uncomfortably and it takes all his efforts to maintain a calm facade. He digs his nails into his palm until he can feel his skin rip and finally forces himself to break away from her. His head is spinning.
When they move to the main ballroom and the banquet begins, he feels like he won't make it till the end. There's an ache that starts in his throat and echoes through his upper body. A burning sensation that he can't swallow.
How much longer is this going to take? The question repeats in his head, like a mantra. It's the only thing he can bring himself to focus on. If he breaks his concentration, his eyes will roam and he knows they can't be trusted to behave.
There's so much tension in his body, he feels like he's going to break by the time the feast has ended.
Zuko is feeling feverish with the now persistent ache making its way all the way down to his feet. He walks a tortoise-snail’s pace as they trek from the banquet hall to his chambers. Katara has her own room but they're expected to be together for their wedding night. There's also a clause in their marriage contact for a monthly room share for the purpose of producing an heir. He wishes he could stop thinking about all that entails.
When they arrive he finally let's his eyes wander.
Katara is absolutely stunning in her ceremonial robes. He hasn't let himself look at her properly all day. Her waist is cinched with a beaded blue sash and her curves are accentuated with draped silken layers of gold and silver. He rips his gaze away from her chest when he notices it settle, only to be drawn in by her lips. they're painted red and there's a smudge from when they kissed that makes his head start to spin again.
“Hi.” Her voice is soft and sweet as summer rain.
“Hi.” His voice is ragged and he realizes his breathing is labored. He shakes his head to shift his gaze to her eyes.
“So—”
“—I’m sorry, Katara, but I'm not..I'm not feeling very well right now.” At least he doesn't have to lie. He can guess the way he looks by the concern painted on her face. She's so entirely exquisite, even with her features slightly contorted.
“Would you like me to try to heal you?”
He tries not to panic. If she were to touch him he knows he couldn't control himself. The tension in his body, built up for nothing, would fall apart at once and the hunger he's been suppressing since their kiss (since long before) would rear its ugly head. She would see him as a monster. A fire nation beast taking advantage of a woman seeking no more than friendship with him.
“I can feel that I need to rest,” he ends up saying. Another half-truth.
“Of course. Whatever you need.” She smiles but there's an awkwardness that he hasn't felt from her before. It doesn't feel like her. But you've just known her through letters. You only met a week ago. How could you possibly know her enough to say? The thoughts manifest into new aches in his body.
“Thank you for understanding.”
Really wish people would tag their "character analysis" with the ship they are low-key talking about because I'm high-key irritated that everytime I see someone "defending" or "vilifying" a character over blatantly misconstrued context it's a shipper who can't stand that their ship wasn't the canon one.
Cause, I'm tired of adding something to a post and having them act like I burned down their crops, poisoned their water supply and brought a plague unto their houses.
It's not that serious.
Is anyone going anywhere nice this year? I know I’m not. Still, it’s nice to dream and live through characters when dreaming doesn’t help.
Ko-fi
Aang: *telling a story to the gaang about when he once had to fight azula alone*
Aang: ..and i was like WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO STAB ME
Aang: and she laughed and stabbed me
The gaang:
Aang: in hindsight i probably shouldn’t have asked
I’ve always felt like Zuko actually knew Katara wouldn’t have killed Yon Rha. More than that, I’m sure had she surprised him and gone through with it, his opinion of who she is as a person would remain just as high.
I did it. I descided to start a new fic cs since it's on my bday it's supposed to be special! uwu
And this time I will actually put double the effort in it cs I want to (maybe will) publish some drafts :D
I hate that they made Katara take Aunt Wu’s predictions so seriously that she resigned herself to eating something she hates for breakfast just because Aunt Wu said so, then thought it was a good idea to, later on in the same episode, make her realize Aang could be the powerful bender she is bound to marry, again because Aunt Wu said so.
In these moments, Iroh’s words come to mind: is it your own destiny? Or is it a destiny someone else has tried to force on you?
Maybe the whole “papaya” thing was just supposed to be a funny little scene, but to me it, it makes the “realization” scene lose its impact because what if this is just another “papaya” situation? It also doesn’t help that in the following episodes they go right back to the dynamic they had before, as if Katara’s big “break through” had never happened.
I think it hurts Katara’s character development because we never actually see her dealing with how she feels about an hypothetical romance with Aang, and if they had allowed her to do so, it would have affected the way she interacted with Aang from that point on. And I think if they had explored that (as theyr should), it would make wonders to Aang and Katara’s relationship development.
